Friday, January 17, 2014

Henan authorities ready to put Christian pastor Zhang on trial

Authorities in the central province of Henan have formalized charged
of " fraud " and " disturbing public order" against the
Protestant Christian pastor Zhang Shaojie , arrested in November 2013 after a
fierce battle to defend his congregation's property against government
expropriation. His
lawyers , Liu Weiguo and Xia Jun, confirm that the trial will take place "
soon ."
Zhang
is part of the Three-Self Movement , the "official" Protestant Church
built by Mao Zedong in the early years of his government. In China only
registered religious groups are allowed. But
there are more unofficial Protestant Christians (about 80 million) than members
of the Three-Self Movement (about 20 million). Fearing
that the situation may get out of hand, for almost five years there has been a
campaign to eliminate the underground communities or merge them into the
official community.

Pastor
Zhang leads the community in the county of Nanle. Beyond
the formal charges the
reason for his arrest is not clear: on the one hand there is his refusal to
surrender Church property to the authorities, on the other hand some sources
speak of a "maneuver" to replace him as leader of the official Christian
community in the area. In
any case, the cleric has denied having done anything wrong .

At
Christmas, hundreds of Protestant Christians from Shenzhen , Shanghai , Jiangsu
, Hebei , Shandong and Beijing went to Nanle to express their support for the
local community and spend the holidays there . They
were forced to celebrate Christmas service outside, since the church premises
are guarded by security officials . Immediately
after the service, they were attacked by "unknown assailants" who
beat them.

A
faithful in the area, anonymous for security reason, says: "It seems clear
that the government has already prepared some 'evidence' to prove that our
pastor is guilty. , But he is not. The authorities behavior is really terrible,
scandalous towards us all".